Germany, partner of the Hebrew Fragments in European Libraries project

The systematic search for the fragments and their cataloguing and publication (with a project of a website) is carried out by a research team under the responsibility of Prof. Andreas Lehnardt, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. Some 3000 fragments of Hebrew manuscripts have been identified. Last year, the project received a substantial funding from the DFG, mainly to cover the salaries of research assistants.

Genizat Germania

The Project ‘Genizat Germania’, funded by the German Research Council (DFG), is located at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Under the supervision of Professor Dr. Andreas Lehnardt the project is dedicated to the disclosure and collection of Hebrew parchment fragments hidden in book bindings and wrappers in German libraries and archives. In recent years the systematic search has revealed several hundred new fragments preserved in hitherto unknown places, including some rare Talmudic, Midrashic and liturgical fragments. In some cases it was possible to identify fragments from different places as belonging to the same Codex. The search is still going on. The project aims at the production of a catalogue of all the fragments found and thereby intends to reconstruct the library of the Ashkenazic Jews in the Middle Ages. Moreover, important findings will be edited and put into the context of medieval Jewish literature. For further information see the web-site: http://www.genizatgermania.uni-mainz.de